Writer of I AM LEGEND to reunite with Will Smith on OLDBOY remake
And so the Summer tentpole blockbuster plans for the OLDBOY remake continues. The Hollywood Reporter say Mark Protosevich (I AM LEGEND, POSEIDON) is in talks with Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks to come up with a screenplay for the redo of the 2003 Chan-wook Park Korean classic. As we mentioned two weeks ago, Will Smith is attached to lead and produce with Spielberg directing. All signs pointed towards a July 4th, watered down blockbuster and hiring the man who wrote the words which helped Smith make $584 million for Warner Bros. last year with I AM LEGEND, is further sad evidence of this. Dreamworks are still trying to hatch a deal with Mandate who own the rights to the original film, who quite understandably are wanting to get a good deal out of this because a Smith/Spielberg combination should be huge. Now I was in favour of I AM LEGEND, I thought it was a pretty good adaptation. It was only about 40% of the power of the original novel but the heart of it was still there and if it was an original screenplay, I think more people would have dug it. What it did show was that Protovosich can deliver a studio friendly version of a dark tale and isn't afraid to change things from the source material to suit Hollywood requirements. That's not a good sign but in turn, he showed he could write material that Will Smith could really run with and give a good performance to.